Mutants Misplaced

Chapter 10

Night at the Inn

Entering the kitchen of the inn, Tyroth was greeted by a large but simple kitchen. There were several shelves with various ingredients including herbs, eggs and whole wheels of cheese. A large table stood against one of the walls with lots of meat on it, both from cow and something that Hulda called a horker. Several small pots and one really big hung just over the edge of the fire pit, there was also a skewer large enough for an entire pig mounted over the pit as well.

Tyroth inspected the food, specifically the horker meat, thinking of what to do with it.

"We'll keep things simple," he said "cut up the beef in steak size, rub it with herbs and roast it. This horker meat, we cut up in smaller pieces and put in a stew with potatoes and carrots, maybe add some eggs and cheese to make it thicker."

"Sounds like a plan." said Raph, picking up one of the knives. "Still, I don't know why you thought that I should help you."

"Since Sephie and Mona will be serving the guests, I thought that you'd want to be close to your mate in case those mercenaries try anything, just like I want to be close to my mate. And since the hall is just back out that opening, we can see what happens."

"Okay, I see your point, but why can't I be out there instead?"

"Because Hulda asked us not to kill or injure the guests too much. Now start preparing those vegetables while I light the fire."

'So I'm cooking and the girls are cleaning up and getting ready for the evening, I suppose it could be worse, I could have been doing the same thing as my brothers.' thought Raph with a smirk.

"This sucks." Mikey sighed in a room past the kitchen. He, Leo and Donnie had been tasked with washing all the dishes before the mercenaries arrived, and Mikey was none too happy with that.

"Just pipe down, Mikey, we got a lot to do here." said Donnie.

"Don't forget that we need to cut firewood as well, and pick up some more food in the market." said Leo.

"Like I said, this sucks."

Time passed and nightfall came, and with it, the Skull Splitters mercenaries. Tyroth and Raph had worked hard with the stew and steaks and felt rather proud of their work. Mona and Sephie were making sure that they had enough tankards to serve drinks in, while the remaining three turtles took a break after their hard work.

As Hulda checked the barrels of mead behind the counter, the door to the inn opened and a group of nearly twenty men entered. Most of them were dressed in different metal armor, while some had lighter leather armor and a few had similar robes as Farengar. The weapons they carried seemed to follow their armor, the heavier the armor, the larger the weapon.

"Hi." Sephie greeted the fighters happily. "Grab a seat and we'll be right with you."

"A lizard serving girl? Haven't seen anything like that since Riften." said one of the mercenaries, dressed in a bronze-gold colored set of armour.

"As long as she brings the mead, she could be a cat for all I care." said another, dressed in a set of dark leather armor.

"Pleasant bunch, ain't they?" said Raph as he watched from the kitchen. "Just their attitude makes me wanna pummel them."

"Calm down, Raph. The girls can handle themselves and we'll step in if we need to, but right now, we got work to do." said Tyroth.

And work they had. After sitting down at the tables, the mercenaries started ordering lots of mead, ale and wine, followed by even more food, keeping the girls busy. As many tankards of drink was emptied, the atmosphere got more pleasant and the inn was filled with merry laughter, but there was a point where the men would go from happy to unruly.

Mona walked into the kitchen with a couple of tankards with mead.

"Here you go, guys. Hulda thought that you might need something to keep you going." she said.

"Thanks a lot, babe." said Raph. "So how's it going out there?"

"Quite well actually, we got a lot to do but it's fun. Some of them are trying to, I guess, flirt with us."

"We've heard them whistling. I hope that's all they've tried." said Tyroth.

"So far, yes. I know that it most likely is the mead talking, but it actually feels a bit flattering that they do it."

The three reptiles were interrupted by the sound of metal hitting the floor and Sephie's voice.

"Get your hands off me!" she yelled and the sound of a slap to the face was heard.

"Ouch! You stupid wench!"

Tyroth narrowed his eyes and growled. Walking out of the kitchen, he saw Sephie with her daggers drawn, ready to defend herself, and a burly man in a full suit of steel armor, with a red mark on his cheek. The man had drawn an axe of black metal with red details, it was serrated and looked almost evil. Hulda tried to get everyone to calm down, but she was mostly ignored as most of the mercenaries supported their comrade.

"What's going on here!?" Tyroth almost roared, causing the inn to fall silent. Gasps of shock was the only thing heard when the mercenaries saw the large winged reptile. They had seed a lot in their lives, but a humanoid dragon was something new.

"He grabbed my behind!" Sephie said to her lover.

Tyroth set his eyes on the mercenary in question and walked towards him with determination, his glare never leaving the man.

"This might get ugly." Raph said to Mona as they watched from the kitchen.

Standing before the mercenary, Tyroth towered over him, his eyes glowing slightly red, causing the man to get nervous. Grabbing the man by the throat, Tyroth lifted him up to eye level, armor and everything.

"Listen closely!" he said to the choking man. "If you want to keep those hands of yours, you keep them to yourself! I find you bothering the girls again and I'm gonna tear your arms right out of their sockets!"

"Release him!" said a dark skinned mercenary in blue robes, with flames in his raised hands. Tyroth threw a glance at the fire wielder, but didn't release his grip on the other guy. Seeing that he wouldn't cooperate, the robed man clenched his hands as if he was holding something and the flames became more intense. With a flick of his wrists he threw the fire at Tyroth, two large, almost spear shaped projectiles of blue and orange flames sped towards the dragon, striking him in the side of the stomach and on his leg, erupting into ember and smoke. But, as it cleared, the mercenaries were in for a shock, for Tyroth was completely unharmed, there weren't even any scorch marks, only small strings of smoke.

Still holding the groper, Tyroth walked over to the shocked mage and grabbed him by the throat as well. Looking the man in the eyes, Tyroth growled loudly.

"Open the door." Tyroth said to Sephie. After she opened it, he walked out and threw the two men into the marketplace. The mage rolled around for a bit after hitting the cobblestones, while the warrior landed with a clang, scaring a patrolling guard.

"And don't come back until you've learned some manners!" Tyroth shouted before walking back into the inn, leaving the two mercenaries with the confused guard.

Inside, the remaining mercenaries were in awe of the dragon.

"What is he?" asked one.

"Krax' fire magic didn't affect him in the slightest" said another.

"How is that possible? Not even the thick skinned giants are unharmed after that." said a third.

"Okay! Listen up!" Tyroth said with a strong voice. "Those two just got the first warning for tonight, and there will be no more! If anyone of you misbehave, pick a god and pray that you'll live! Questions on that?!"

The inn was almost dead silent, the mercenaries knew that Tyroth was serious, they saw it in his eyes and heard it in his voice.

"No? Good, then continue to enjoy yourselves." Tyroth said before returning to the kitchen.

"Damn, I honestly thought that you were gonna kill 'em." said Raph.

"The night's not over yet, I may still get a chance. But I think they'll behave from now on."

"I'll say, if I had been on the receiving end of that I sure would be at my best behavior." said Mona. "Well, I'd better get back to work."

"Take care, babe."

The rest of the night went on without any problems. It took a while but eventually, the mercenaries became merry again, though they kept calm, not forgetting their warning. Overall, it was a pleasant time for all in the inn.

Except for three turtles in the room past the kitchen.

As the feasting continued, more and more dishes got carried into the room for the three brothers to wash. Sighing deeply, Mikey looked at the seemingly endless work ahead of them.

"I've said it before," he said "and I'll say it again; this sucks!"

Well, that's that. As some of you, if not all of you, figured, the mercs just couldn't keep their hands to themselves. I suppose I could have made it into a proper fight, but I didn't want to wreck the inn, I like it the way it is, in one piece.

Next time, we'll see if the team is ready to head out for the Collage of Winterhold. See you then.